Doctor plagued by WA woman's custody death

A doctor has told an inquest she has been plagued by the death of an Aboriginal woman in custody and wondered whether she could have done something differently.

Ms Dhu, whose first name is not used for cultural reasons, died in Western Australia two days after being locked up at South Hedland Police Station in August last year, for failing to pay fines totalling $3622 for offences including assaulting police.

Ms Dhu, 22, died during her third visit in as many days to the Hedland Health Campus from staphylococcal septicaemia and pneumonia, following an infection in her fractured ribs that spread to her lungs.

Dr Anne Lang treated Ms Dhu the first time and told a coronial inquest on Thursday that her death later was an "incredible shock" and she had thought about whether she could have done something differently.

"I've given it a lot of thought. It's gone over my mind," she said.

Dr Lang said Ms Dhu was emotionally volatile, anxious, upset and angry, and she got the impression Ms Dhu did not want to be at the hospital or in police custody.

"She was in pain, she was groaning, she was speaking quite loudly and abruptly," she said.